


For the Sake of Smiles

by Kinni



Series: V3 Ultimate Shipping: All the Pairings! [2]
Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Background Relationships, Birds of a Feather, F/F, Friends to Lovers, No Angst, Performances, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 07:15:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14848175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kinni/pseuds/Kinni
Summary: Due to a clerical error, Kaede and Himiko end up having to share space for a show. This would begin a series of events that would slowly bring the two much closer together.





	For the Sake of Smiles

Hope’s Peak Academy wasn’t a normal school, by any stretch of the imagination, and one of the ways in which it was so related to the fact that the students were frequently famous people, and their schedules could be shifted around to accommodate their special activities, given that their talents were the very reason they were accepted.

Frequently, such students would end up spending quite a long time away from the school to do such things, but quite a few of them actually preferred to spend as much time as possible in the school, together with their classmates and friends, so they designed their schedules carefully with that in mind, and Hope’s Peak Academy definitely supported that sort of behavior, with personnel specifically dedicated to help arrange student schedules as needed.

But although the academy was full of resources and skilled personnel, even they were only human, and sometimes made mistakes, and one mistake of these in particular ended up changing the paths of two of the students in a very particular way.

“I can’t believe this. They really scheduled both of us for a performance at the exact same place and time?” Kaede said, disbelievingly “And they prepared the whole thing, selling tickets and everything, without anyone realizing that something was wrong?”

“Nyehh... How troublesome.” Himiko, the other person who had been caught in the problem, commented.

Kaede was standing next to Himiko’s chair in their classroom. Tenko, Kirumi and Angie were either standing or sitting, the five girls together forming a circle.

“And we can’t cancel either of the shows!” Kaede declared “Otherwise, the audience will be sad!”

“That’s right.” Himiko agreed.

“Can’t you two do their shows at the same time?” Tenko suggested.

“There’s no way.” Kaede said “The venue is simply not built for housing that many people, considering that both of us would always draw full houses.”

“I believe there may be a solution to that.” Kirumi said, with her usual smile.

“Really?” Kaede and Himiko asked together “That would be amazing!” The pianist continued.

“All that needs to be done is some small remodeling to make the stage into a two floor area.” Kirumi explained.

Kaede looked doubtful “That would work... But is there really enough time to make those reforms before the shows?”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” Kirumi smiled “I will take responsibility to make sure everything is done perfectly.”

“Ah, that’s good, then.” Himiko said.

Kaede was also satisfied. If Kirumi said she would handle it, then it was as good as done.

“Oh, but we need to make sure that our performances won’t interfere with each other.” Kaede suddenly remembered.

“Which music are you going to play?” Himiko asked.

And that started a lively discussion (even Himiko was noticeably hyped up, in comparison with her normal attitude). Tenko got a little surprised at the situation, while Kirumi just smiled and started thinking about her preliminary preparations.

+0+

Eventually, a plan was designed to time their two performances in such a way that the expected cheers of one side wouldn’t interfere with anything the other side was doing.

In fact, they actually improved each other somewhat. Kaede’s chosen pieces were those with a mysterious mood, which served as a nice backdrop for Himiko’s magic, and the timing of her tricks was such that the clapping and cheering of her audience served as a trigger for Kaede’s own audience to cheer as well.

In fact, it was so well done that several members of the audience thought that their shows had been originally planned like that, and the result was worth all the effort they had made to adjust their performances, as well as Kirumi’s effort of rebuilding. Both shows were a success.

“That was great!” Kaede cheered, after getting back to the staff room “And it seems like your show also went well, Himiko.”

Said magician (Mage!) was sitting on one of the chairs on the room, obviously exhausted but with an obvious smile on her face, and greeted Kaede with a raised hand before speaking:

“Yeah. Everyone was smiling when they left the room.”

Kaede nodded “Making people happy like this, that’s the whole reason why I love piano so much.” She said.

“Making people smile is the whole purpose of magic too.” Himiko said.

Kaede sat down next to Himiko, and the two kept talking. It was a small thing, but the two of them felt a bit of kinship with each other after learning of their similar views.

+0+

After that, they started talking to each other more often. It was subtle, but a few of their friends actually noticed it, although they didn’t think too much about it at the time.

Kaede and Himiko were both very dedicated to their particular specialties, and they loved to talk about them, but that show had made them more aware of each other, and so they tended to think about each other first whenever they wanted to talk about such things.

And that was what led to the next important incident, as Kaede called Himiko (or rather, dragged her) to her room in order to listen to a piece of piano music she had found on the internet. It wasn’t a particularly long piece, but it was fast and furious, full to the brim of notes.

“What do you think?” Kaede asked Himiko after it was done.

“That’s very fast.” Himiko said “But it sounded pretty fun. Do you want to play it on one of your shows?”

Kaede shook her head “That would be cool, but it’s impossible.” She said with a sigh “This music was created on synthesizer, and can’t be played on a real piano. The keys are too far apart, the transitions between them are too fast... Lots of problems.”

“What if you used two pianos at once?” Himiko asked.

Kaede opened her mouth to say that it wouldn’t work, but then she started thinking about it. Perhaps simply trying to play two pianos at once wouldn’t work, but perhaps if she used customized versions...

She snapped out of her thoughts and talked to Himiko:

“I have an idea.”

But the magician (Mage!) ended up having to wait a while to find out what that idea was, because Kaede spent the next two weeks either running around trying to prepare things, or cooped up in her room messing around with an electronic keyboard.

However, after that time, Himiko was the first person who heard news of Kaede’s success, when she heard a knock on the door to her room at ten in the night, when she was getting ready to sleep.

Himiko got up somewhat unwillingly and opened the door to see that it was actually Kaede, but before being able to ask what she wanted, the pianist wrapped her up in a hug and declared joyfully:

“I did it!” And then she started spinning Himiko around the room.

The smaller girl was used to that sort of thing, though usually from Tenko, so she simply let herself be spun and waited for Kaede’s euphoria to slow down.

When it did, the blonde girl put Himiko back down, before proceeding to collapse on her bed. That actually surprised her, though most people wouldn’t be able to tell just looking at her expression.

“Okay. What did you do, and why are you so tired?” Himiko asked.

“I can play that synthesizer song on my own now.” She said.

And then she began a tired but lively recounting of her experiences over the previous two weeks: asking help to modify a few electronic keyboards so that she could set up what notes each key would play, and make it so they would change based on the time of the song. Adjusting everything to make it possible to play that specific piece of music. Getting the school’s help to contact the original composer to get permission to play his music on a show...

Eventually though, Kaede trailed off, having fallen to sleep. Himiko briefly considered the idea of waking her up and getting her to go back to her own bed, but ultimately decided not to. Kaede had seemed really tired, and Himiko wouldn’t like to be woken up in such a situation either.

So she simply climbed on the bed besides Kaede and allowed herself to sleep as well. The bed was more than big enough for the two of them, after all.

+0+

As a result of that event, Himiko actually got remarkably curious when Kaede later gave her a ticket for the performance that had taken all of that preparation to arrange.

The place of the performance was a rather normal theater-style stage, and Himiko’s ticket put her right on the front row of the audience, so she had a rather good view of the situation when the curtains were raised.

There were actually only two electronic keyboards set-up, put at an angle to each other in a special table where Kaede was sitting, forming two-thirds of a triangle. Kaede herself sat at a small chair, and wore a very elegant black dress. She smiled and waved once as the audience clapped at her appearance.

Kaede truly looked stunning.

After a moment for silence to be restored, Kaede took a deep breath and started playing, but since the “main piece” was so short for the standards of piano performances, Kaede actually started with a series of different songs, alternating keyboards in between songs.

However, eventually she reached the final part, and everyone could see it since Kaede put one hand on top of each keyboard, and then she started to play.

Himiko recognized the music from when Kaede had showed it to her a whole three weeks before, and she understood why the pianist had initially deemed it impossible to perform the piece. Even with all the preparations, Kaede had still been forced into an extremely fast and technical performance, in a way that even the magician (Mage!) could see how hard it was.

Her hands were bouncing from side to side at a maniacal pace, and her fingers were almost blurs with how fast they were moving. Himiko felt a phantom pain in her hands just from looking at it. But every single one of those things had been worth it, as the performance was truly beautiful.

In fact, Himiko would even say that it qualified as a magical performance.

When it ended, the entire audience gave Kaede a standing ovation. And that included Himiko, who also had a broad smile on her face.

Yes, it was truly a magical performance.

+0+

A few weeks later, on a day where she had been hanging out in Kaede’s room, Himiko let out a sigh upon being asked how her shows were going.

“They are that bad?” Kaede asked, empathetically.

“Not bad... It’s just...” Himiko sighed again “It’s a pain to talk about.”

Kaede simply looked meaningfully at Himiko, and waited for her to muster the will to speak.

“It feels like something is missing.” Himiko eventually said “It’s like I’m getting too predictable, and my shows can’t bring smiles to everyone... They still have fun, but my magic is not as great as it should be.”

Kaede put a hand on Himiko’s shoulder, trying to console her, and thought about those of Himiko’s shows she had watched, trying to think of any advice she could give to her fellow performer.

And she surprised herself by realizing that she actually did have some advice that could be useful.

“Maybe...” She started “Maybe the problem is that your shows are too... fragmented, I guess?”

“Could you explain that better?” Himiko asked, looking at Kaede in full seriousness.

“Well...” Kaede struggled to find a way to explain her feelings properly “What I mean is... Your shows have a certain ‘flow’ to them. You explain the magic, you let the tension build up for a while and then you perform the magic.” She looked at Himiko, who nodded in confirmation “That is a good way to do things, it works, but maybe you should try to make your shows more... continuous?” She said.

“I mean, the time of waiting has its purpose, but maybe you could do other things during the waiting period.” Kaede said, feeling like she was getting closer to what she wanted to convey “Like, you could do another magic or a bunch of smaller magics to keep the audience engaged, and prepare them for the big finale.”

Himiko put a hand on her chin “So... You mean making it so that even the waiting is magic...? Perhaps... Perhaps I could make magic even just merely walking around...”

Kaede saw that Himiko seemed to be getting some ideas, so she didn't interrupt, but neither did she leave, content to watch Himiko's face as she started developing the ideas in her mind.

+0+

Most people who knew Himiko personally understood her personality that didn't like to be bothered. However, while she could be quite lazy about most things, those who knew her well also recognized that the girl also had a very hardworking side.

And she demonstrated that perfectly during the three weeks of preparation that followed her initial insights. She also demonstrated that her skills were surprisingly broad, as she built models, messed around with machines, wove curtains and did other miscellaneous things. Himiko did get some help from other ultimates with a few things, but she insisted in doing the most crucial parts herself.

Her classmates slowly got more and more curious about what kind of show she was trying to perform, and why did it need all those disparate things. Himiko tended to deflect their questions with saying that it was a surprise, but Kaede actually managed to get a few hints out of her:

“Have you ever heard about 'Mystery Spots'?” Himiko had asked.

“I... Don't think so...?” Kaede said.

“My newest magic is inspired by them.” Himiko said, with a mysterious smile.

And that was that. Kaede actually thought about researching about those so-called 'Mystery Spots', or simply asking one of her classmates (Korekiyo would probably know), but she felt that Himiko wanted the magic to be a secret, so she eventually decided to simply wait for the actual show.

+0+

As expected, Kaede got a front row seat to Himiko's newest performance. She had a full house as always, but Kaede could understand why the smaller girl was having concerns about her audience, since plenty of people were talking casually or eating, and their mood didn't seem as full of anticipation as she would like.

However, if their behavior was due to believing that Himiko's show would be the same as before, they were proven wrong just as soon as the curtains were raised.

Himiko was standing in the middle of the stage, wearing the showy and cute magician clothes she usually wore for performances (lilac colored version this time), but that was pretty much the only part of it that was as usual.

The stage itself was much, much more complex than in any other magic show Kaede could think off, containing all sorts of things. The closest comparison the pianist could thing off was a theater stage, partitioned into several different “rooms”.

And while some of the things in those rooms were expected, like a water tank and one of those rectangular boxes used for sword tricks, there was also a room that looked like a bedroom except sideways (thus the bed was hanging on the wall), a kitchen hanging perilously on a single board on the “second floor”, and somehow also a tree.

Himiko started her act by taking off her hat, saying “I hope you enjoy my magic show”, and bowing deeply. And when she stood back up, her clothes were now green colored.

The audience reacted audibly to that sudden change, but no one actually spoke anything. They were immediately entranced by Himiko's magic, and Kaede was no different. Himiko then smiled with confidence, as if promising that things were only just starting.

And she immediately made good on that promise. Himiko spun in place and disappeared completely. There was a moment of confusion before her hand waved from behind the tree. And not from the ground floor either, but way up in the air, seemingly standing on a high branch.

Himiko then showed herself completely, sitting down on the branch and idly moving her legs. Next, she dove backwards, only to reappear on an even higher section, leaning on the tree with an elbow and standing on thin air. And after that, she started “climbing” the tree, except she was going down... and her clothes were acting as if gravity was pulling her up.

Himiko lost her hold and fell up for a moment, but disappeared with a spin and reappeared a moment later, back on the ground floor. She looked up for a moment and then shook her head before turning to the water tank and putting a finger on her chin.

She turned back to the audience and clapped her hands, causing an explosion of light that faded to reveal that she was now wearing a blue version of her outfit. Himiko walked to the water tank and flicked it a few times, before casually walking through the wall of the tank.

She swam a little bit inside the water and followed it up by stomping on the bottom, causing a ridiculous amount of bubbles to rise up and obscure her for a moment, after which Himiko had vanished from the water. She reappeared from behind the sword box, dripping wet.

Himiko frowned for a moment, then spun in place and burst into flames. But the flames lasted for only a single moment and when they disappeared, Himiko had changed into a red version of her outfit.

She turned back to the sword box and opened it, showing that there was nothing inside. Closing it again, she proceeded to somehow produce ten swords out of thin air. Himiko imitated those sword swallowing tricks with each of the swords, with the addition that they burst into flames upon coming out of her mouth. Himiko pierced those flaming swords into the sword box.

Predictably, the box caught on fire. Himiko watched it for a moment before removing the swords, which stopped burning once out. In contrast, each removal seemed to make the box burn even more, until it was pretty much a pyre. Himiko sucked on a breath and blew on the box, putting it out.

It had been completely charred black, but Himiko didn't care, and opened it again, showing that inside it had appeared... a cup of tea.

Clapping her hands in delight, Himiko took it onto her hands and drank the tea in a single gulp. She yawned and started walking towards the bedroom “room”, muttering sleepily. She passed through one of the partitions and at that moment, her clothes changed again, becoming a pink outfit with a few elements that made it resemble pajamas.

Himiko casually walked on the wall and dropped onto the bed, as if to sleep. However, her desire would not come to pass, as an evil laugh suddenly resounded through the air and Himiko dropped up.

She held onto the sheets of the bed to avoid flying into the air, following by wrapping herself in them and disappearing again. She returned while climbing onto the second floor, nearing the “kitchen”. She took a single step onto the board that held it onto the air and it shook, making her retreat.

Seemingly having an idea, Himiko threw something in the air which caused a huge amount of confetti to fall down on her, ending with the girl having changed back into a more normal magician's outfit, this time white.

Himiko went back to walking the board, but as she did, the girl started somehow shrinking, and when she got into the actual kitchen, Himiko had become mouse sized, and she scurried up one of the chairs, seemingly intent upon reaching the sink.

Before she could get there, however, the evil laugh returned, and the kitchen was overcome by strong winds, that threw things around and swept Himiko into the air and out of sight.

Again she reappeared back at ground floor, normal sized and stomping her foot in frustration. Himiko produced something else from thin air, this time a whip, and waved it around herself, resulting in her clothes turning black. She pointed at the kitchen with the whip, and it turned black.

But it wasn't just like someone had turned the lights off, but like the kitchen had turned into pure void. The stage lights were illuminating everything around it perfectly, but the kitchen itself seemed to be rejected by the nearby light. The laugh came a third time, and the entire ground floor suffered the same as the kitchen, making Himiko disappear again.

She climbed back up into view atop the sword box, raised both of her hands and brought them down with a sharp movement, causing everything that was left of the stage to be plunged into the void as well.

There was nothing for one, two, three seconds, and then the entire stage came back to normal... except that Himiko was missing. Again there was one, two, three seconds of nothing, as the audience waited to see from where Himiko would reappear, when their attentions were attracted by a clapping sound, coming from the entrance of the stage.

Specifically, above the entrance.

Turning to look, they saw Himiko, standing atop a high light fixture. She waved at them and took a step onto the light globe itself, causing it to flicker for a moment, and Himiko somehow changed clothes again during it, this time to a powerful-looking violet.

She jumped off, but instead of falling, actually seemed to fly, swooping down over the crowd like a bird of prey. Himiko flew over the audience, causing some of them to raise their hands in an attempt to touch her. She extended her arm down and actually did touch a few of them as she passed.

Finally reaching the stage itself, she dropped down and reached at the water tank, pulling out a line from it. She kept pulling, and the tank started to “unweave”, as if it was just some sort of embroidery.

Further pulling, and it seemed like the entire stage, including the sword box, bedroom and kitchen were all part of the same embroidery, and were slowly being unwoven as well, resulting in a downright silly amount of thread accumulating at Himiko's feet.

Then the stage was completely unwoven, and Himiko looked towards the audience, and bowed.

The ovation was deafening, and not a single soul in the audience failed to stand up.

+0+

Himiko had previously told Kaede that she would tell the security people to let her in after the show, so the pianist entered backstage and made her way to Himiko's stage room.

Inside, she found the girl herself lying down on a cushion, obviously exhausted, though she reacted to Kaede's entrance:

“What did you think of my performance?” She asked the pianist.

“It was amazing!” Kaede said with enthusiasm “I didn't expect that all those things you did would end up creating something like that. But you seem really tired.”

“I used more than sixty different spells back there. My MP is completely drained.” Himiko said, before turning it back around and asking another question “And what were your favorite parts?”

Kaede walked towards Himiko and sat down on the cushion besides her, before continuing their conversation.

+0+

After that, the next major development occurred only a few days later, during an interval in classes, when Kaede asked an offhand question:

“Remember when we had to make our shows at the same time, way back?”

“Yeah, I do.” Himiko, who was sitting on a neighboring chair, answered.

“I've kinda been thinking...” Kaede started “What if we actually did a show together? A true collaboration?”

“Hmmm?” Himiko answered noncommittally “Well, it could be fun I guess... But how would it work?”

“Actually I have a few ideas about that.” Kaede said.

She started talking, and soon Himiko was also bringing up a few ideas of her own. The two had to stop soon when the next class started, but after it ended, they went back to it. Soon, mere ideas slowly started morphing into plans, and the two decided to go for it.

+0+

The preparations that time took a lot less time, since the two of them were working together. Kaede mainly took charge of the timing of their performance, since it would be based on her music, while Himiko prepared the stage for the magic to happen.

They did not stress overly much about having things be perfect, since that was mostly just a fun thing to do together, but that didn't mean that the two were going to be sloppy. They were professionals after all, and it was all for the sake of smiles, the smiles of the audience.

And really, when the time of the show finally came, no one in the audience was even a bit disappointed. When the curtains were raised, it could be seen that the stage was very simple, only containing a piano and the two performers. Kaede and Himiko were wearing matching red and white clothes. The former was sitting in front of the piano, while the latter was standing in front of the audience.

“This is our musical magic show.” Himiko said with a bow.

“And we hope you'll like it.” Kaede said with a wave.

Then she put her hands on the piano and started to play.

Her piece was light and airy, giving everything a feeling of floatiness, as if the entire world was rising up into the sky. Himiko walked over to the piano and demonstrated this by raising it above her head, forcing Kaede to stop playing.

Of course, that resulted in the piano recovering its original weight, leaving Himiko struggling to support its weight, while Kaede looked on, annoyed. Himiko then blew on the other girl, causing her to start floating, whereupon she returned to the piano and started playing it in midair.

But it was now a different piece, a quick-paced number that brought to mind storms. And with that, the piano took off like and airplane and started flying around over the audience, while Himiko hung on for dear life.

Then things changed again with Himiko twisting around in the air before letting go. And instead of falling down, she somehow seemed to orbit around the piano to land atop it. Then she did a little hop in place and the musical instrument started inverting itself vertically, causing Kaede to be the one hanging from the bottom, while Himiko accompanied the spin and remained on top. Kaede still kept playing, however.

And apparently, this gave her the ability to steer the flying piano, allowing Kaede to fly back to the stage and grab the chair in which she had been sitting before, where she promptly sat, somehow not falling even though she was literally sitting upside down.

The piano went into a spin, forcing Himiko to run in order to avoid falling off, but soon she tripped and fell... directly onto Kaede's lap. Taking one look, she then started playing the piano herself, despite Kaede never stopping.

The music turned into a bizarre duet, where the two girls seemed to be fighting through song in order to obtain control of the flight. The piano went crazy with rises, dives, spins and all sorts of crazy maneuvers that almost hit the walls of the place.

People who really knew piano were able to tell that Himiko's part was significantly easier and simpler, and most of the wonder of the music came from Kaede's skillful playing that was able to make it seem like a real duet. Still, just that was already amazing enough, specially considering the circumstances in which they were playing.

Eventually though, the two girls seemed to come to some sort of understanding. Their playing became more harmonious, and the flying piano became more controlled. They moved back to the stage and landed on it.

And yet they still kept playing, and it got faster and faster until... The stage itself rose up into the air. It stayed floating for ten seconds before going down, allowing Kaede and Himiko to stand up and bow to the audience.

The applause was proof of how good their performance had been.

+0+

Kaede and Himiko pretty much stumbled back into their stage room, since it had been a very tiring show for the two of them. The girls pretty much fell into the cushion in there (Himiko had insisted) and simply allowed their bodies to rest for a bit.

“That was great.” Kaede eventually broke the silence.

“Yeah. It looked like everyone had fun.” Himiko answered.

The two fell silent again. But it wasn't an awkward silence, but instead a shared sense of understanding without words. And yet some things did indeed have to be said, so Kaede opened her mouth once again and asked:

“Himiko, do you want to date?”

The smaller girl looked at her for a moment and then answered:

“Sure.”

+0+

“And that's how it happened.” Kaede said to Kirumi and Tenko.

The four were currently taking a break while sitting on two of the outdoor benches of the academy. Well, Himiko was sitting on Kaede's lap on one of them, and the other two were sitting on the other.

Tenko looked like she didn't know whether she should be laughing or not “... That's it?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Himiko said “It was kinda just like... there was no reason not to... you know?”

“Really.” Kaede said, hugging Himiko with a smile. Which then turned mischievous as she spoke again:

“But I'm curious about you two. How did that happen?”

Hearing those words, Tenko blushed crimsom while Kirumi simply smiled mysteriously.

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to have been finished a lot earlier... But I got way too into all the performance stuff, and that was the result.
> 
> The next one shot will come a lot faster. Also, I was originally planning for it to be Korekiyo/Gonta, but recent developments in atua, take the wheel caused me to become inspired, so you can look forward to Tsumugi/Maki next. See you then!


End file.
